1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to photography and, in particular, it is concerned with a new class of silver halide solvents and with photographic products, processes and compositions employing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Photographic processing compositions capable of forming water-soluble complex silver salts are known to be useful in many types of silver halide photography. To obtain a relatively stable image in an exposed and developed photosensitive silver halide emulsion, the silver halide remaining in the unexposed and undeveloped areas of the emulsion should be converted to a soluble silver complex that can be removed by washing or converted to a stable silver complex that will not "print-out" upon prolonged exposure to light. In conventional or "tray" development, it is customary to fix the developed silver halide emulsion by applying a solution of silver halide solvent, i.e., silver halide complexing agent which forms a water-soluble silver complex with the residual silver halide. The water-soluble silver complex thus formed and excess silver halide solvent are then removed from the developed and fixed emulsion by washing with water.
Silver halide solvents also have been employed in monobaths where a single processing composition containing a silver halide developing agent in addition to the silver halide solvent is utilized for both developing and fixing an exposed photosensitive silver halide layer. Silver halide solvents also have been employed in diffusion transfer photographic processes. Such processes are now well known in the art; see for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,543,181; 2,647,056; 2,983,606; etc. In processes of this type, an exposed silver halide emulsion is treated with a processing composition whereby the exposed silver halide emulsion is developed and an imagewise distribution of diffusible image-forming components is formed in the unexposed and undeveloped portions of the silver halide emulsion. This distribution of image-forming components is transferred by imbibition to an image-receiving stratum in superposed relationship with the silver halide emulsion to provide the desired transfer image. In diffusion transfer processes where a silver transfer image is formed, processing is effected in the presence of a silver halide solvent which forms a diffusible complex with the undeveloped silver halide. The soluble silver complex thus formed diffuses to the superposed image-receiving layer where the transferred silver ions are deposited as metallic silver to provide the silver transfer image. In preparing silver prints in this manner, the image-receiving element preferably includes a silver precipitating agent, for example, heavy metal sulfides and selenides as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,698,237 of Edwin H. Land.
Various compounds have been employed as silver halide solvents in the photographic processes described above. One of the most commonly employed is sodium thiosulfate. Other silver halide solvents that have been used include thiocyanates, such as potassium and sodium thiocyanate; mercaptans, such as mercaptoacetic acid and cysteine; alkali metal cyanides, such as potassium cyanide; and cyclic imides, such as barbituric acid and uracil. U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,014 discloses still another class of silver halide solvents, namely, .beta.-disulfones but is limited to the use of open-chain compounds, i.e., 1,1-bis-sulfonyl alkanes though various cyclic .beta.-disulfones are known per se in the art.
According to the present invention, it has been found that certain cyclic .beta.-disulfones are also useful as silver halide solvents.